Aiming to put its wind generator where the breeze blows the strongest, researchers at the University of Maine on May 31 launched VolturnUS 1:8, a scale-model wind turbine designed to convert to electricity offshore wind from the Gulf of Maine. The prototype, a 65-ft-tall tower supported by three hollow concrete tubes, is designed to a 1:8 scale and has 20 kilowatts of capacity; successful trials will lead to a 300-ft-tall full-scale turbine capable of generating 6 MW, which would be fed to the onshore grid by 2016 (ENR.com 5/17). The scale model was designed and fabricated in the University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composites Center. It is the first of seven U.S. Dept. of Energy maritime wind projects to begin testing under a $128-million program. The VolturnUS project is the world's first concrete-composite floating-platform wind turbine, says DOE, adding that wind off the U.S. coast represents more than 4,000 GW of untapped power.